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According to the charts, at my height I can weigh up to 160 lbs before I become overweight. To be obese, I would have to weigh 200 lbs.
Y'all, at 112 lbs, and a BMI so low it's not even listed on the chart I'm looking at, I wore a six. That's what I weighed as a teenager, when I was modeling. At this weight, I was anemic and suffered from low blood sugar problems. By today's standards, size six is "too fat for a model."
The lowest weight listed as "healthy" for me is 130, at which size I wear a 10. At 130 lbs, I am what society calls "chunky, needs to lose 20 pounds." Men, however, express a different opinion when I'm in this weight range - they like it. At this weight, I'm much healthier than at the lower weight - I actually have a muscle layer. At this weight, I can buy clothing, but not at the top-end fashion stores.
At 155 lbs, I would be a medically normal weight, NOT overweight - and wear a 16. And I would be "fat". Men still think I'm hot at this weight, but they are less willing to admit it in public. If I were lucky, I might be able to find clothes in my size at off-brand stores.
At 195 lbs, I would be medically "overweight" but not obese - but if I ever made the mistake of appearing on television, I would be blamed for the imminent collapse of America's health care system. Oh, and on me, that would be a size 20. Most stores don't even carry clothing this large.
I'm not arguing that obesity is healthy; it's not. But being a healthy weight IS healthy. Buffy the Body, according to her statistics, is a healthy weight, butt and all. It's just that we're not used to what women of a healthy weight look like. We've been trained to believe that healthy people are fat. Dickerson thinks Buffie the Body is dangerously fat, despite the fact that her statistics put her within a healthy weight for her height, because Dickerson, like most of us, has never seen a healthy person featured in any media.
Someone below posted that the CDC's own data shows that moderately overweight people live longer than "normal" weight people. Yep. That's true. Obesity reduces lifespan, but being moderately overweight increases it - scientific fact, gathered by the very same people who are trumpeting the "epidemic of obesity." I posted this a while ago, in a thread on Broadsheet, and you know what response I got? "I don't see how useless flab could increase lifespan."
That's because a certain amount of "flab" isn't useless. It's required for normal functioning. Supermodels aren't healthy; they don't even have menstrual periods. People aren't meant to be stick figures.
But, you know, you're a... what are you again? Some guy on the internet who hates "fat" chicks? So I guess you're more expert than the experts on health issues.
